


How Long?

by Thefandomsaretakingovermylife



Series: Art [4]
Category: Good Girls (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Angst, Dean is mentioned but I still hate him and its obvious, F/M, Sexual Tension, not beta read we die like men
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-21
Updated: 2020-01-21
Packaged: 2021-02-27 15:13:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,765
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22345420
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Thefandomsaretakingovermylife/pseuds/Thefandomsaretakingovermylife
Summary: "Here’s the thing with being Rio’s soulmate.She’s known him practically her whole life but she still can’t shake the feeling she knows nothing about him. Rio, as she knew, kept walls a mile high and there was little she knew of how to break them down. And as she contemplated her life with him in it, she only had one real question: How long? How long would he continue to play mind games with her? How long would he dominate her every thought? How long would he stay in her life this time? Would it be for good or would he leave tomorrow? And for Beth, the answer was simple.How long? Just as long as Rio is king.  "
Relationships: Beth Boland/Rio
Series: Art [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1464121
Comments: 12
Kudos: 82





	How Long?

She felt fine. Really, she did. The cash flowed enough where she wasn’t as worried anymore about making ends meet, Ruby and Annie worked hard to earn their share, and on the best days, she almost forgot she repeatedly lied to everyone she knew except for three people.

She liked washing cash. It was something she was good at, something that showed she wasn’t completely useless outside of PTA meetings and being a driver for her kids, and that feeling had been all too rare in her life. Despite how her face looked, she was over the moon to receive her next drop of fake cash. Which is why when Agent Turner showed up at her door asking questions directed at her and Dean, she actually felt the light slowly leaving her eyes.

The FBI popping in was not part of their deal.

**************************************************************************

“You all asked for a piece of this.”

“We did, sir. That’s true.” 

In all of their years of being sisters, Beth was pretty sure she had never seen Annie seem more earnest and enthusiastic about something. And to be honest, Beth felt the same. She wanted to do this, she didn’t want to hand over her payday. But she had her kids to think about, which is why she agreed to try to return the funny money when Ruby brought it up after Beth told her and Annie about her new friend Jimmy Turner. If FBI agents were going to sniff around her kitchen, she owed it to her kids to make sure there was nothing that could cause them any trouble. But how much trouble could they get into washing cash? That’s probably the most innocent operation Rio has.

“That was before the FBI dropped by.”

She couldn’t believe she let Ruby talk her into this. When she spoke, she could hear it in her own voice how much she doesn’t agree which what she said.

“Okay, let’s just calm down. Sorry. She just kinda does this. It’s all part of the process.”

Beth isn’t surprised anymore when Annie didn’t take her side. Sure, she had Sadie to care for, but for Annie, washing cash was the best way to do that. Fine and Frugal doesn’t pay much of anything and not everyone has a bankrupt car dealership that, if all else fails, could be sold. Beth would do the same if the roles were reversed.

“What is that supposed to mean?”

“Hmm, I don’t know. You begged our parents for a piano and they drop three grand on a baby upright. And guess who decides she’d rather play violin?”

“I’m staying out of it.”

The last thing Ruby needed is more drama in her life.

“Sounds like y’all got a lot to work out. So…”

When Rio turned to leave, Beth started to panic. For all she knows this could be the last time she sees him. It can’t end like this. Not with her offering a half-assed excuse to get out of a situation she doesn’t actually want to leave.

“Wait a second. Don’t you want to take your product?”

Beth knew what she’s doing. If she could get him to stay just a little while longer, if she could ask the right question or say the right thing, he’ll make them to wash it. He won’t let them leave that easily. If she had to follow through, then he had to come back. He has to see her again. Doesn’t he want that too?

“This ain’t the Girl Scouts. You can’t give the cookies back.”

“Aren’t you worried about the FBI?”

Beth was pretty sure Ruby was the only person in that kitchen actually worried about the FBI.

“Nah. There’s a distribution system. You’ve been distributed to. Which means you’re on the hook now.”

“It’s, like, a hundred grand.” 

“Oh, you don’t got to wash it. You could burn it. Eat it. Wipe your ass with it. Then write me a check. ‘Cause either way, I’m coming to collect.”

As Rio turned to leave again, Beth felt the weight lifting off her shoulders. She had to wash the money, which meant she still had a payday coming her way. She could pay to keep a roof over her kids head and food in their pantry. And a guarantee to see him at least one more time.

“Hey,” Rio turned back to them once again as Annie spoke up. “Guess who ended up taking the piano lessons?” She pointed her thumb over in Beth’s direction. “Six years. It’s gonna be fine.”

Rio caught Beth’s eye as he finally was able to leave and tilted his head slightly toward the door as if beckoning her to follow him as he turned and followed his boys out of the room. The gesture was so slight that if her eyes weren't glued to his face, she was positive she would have missed it.

“Hey, I’ll be right back. I think I left my purse in the car and it has my phone in it.”

It was the only thing she could think of to getaway. She knew it didn’t sound very convincing, but it proved to not matter as Annie and Ruby were already lost in a conversation of their own. Beth practically ran out of the kitchen, down the hall, and out the front door. She was moving so fast she almost ran into Rio where he stood leaning on her patio against the brick wall. And even though she barely moved a few yards, being alone with him again managed to leave her breathless. Beth slowed her speed and walked over to him, claimed the empty spot next to him and leaned her body to rest on the wall, mirroring his stance and posture.

It took a few seconds before she heard him speak.

“That’s not what you want, is it?”

“What do you mean?”

“You asked for this. To do more. You brought the washing method to me. You did. Not them. You wouldn’t have done that if you didn’t want this. Why are you trying to leave?”

“I’m not 15 anymore. It’s not just me. I have my family to think about. The kids come first and having the cops coming after us isn’t a very safe environment for them.”

“That’s a fucking poor reason if I’ve ever heard one. Wanna try again?”

“Are you saying that my kids’ lives aren’t a good enough reason to not break the law?”

Rio turned his head to get a better look at Beth and a smile lurked at the corners of his mouth.

“That would be a great reason if I believed that’s why you tryna back out. You’re smart. You wouldn’t have gotten involved in the first place if you thought your kids were at risk.” Beth looked down at her feet and tried to hide her reddening face from Rio’s view. “You forget there was a time where I knew you better then you knew yourself.”

There was a long pregnant pause before Beth opened her mouth to speak again.

“I didn’t want to turn in the money. Ruby thought it would be best.”

“Why you lettin’ her think for you?”

“I guess I’m just scared?”

“What are you afraid of?”

Beth jerked her head up and looked Rio dead in the eyes.

“What?”

“I’m tryna be nice or some shit for once. Just go with it, huh? Now, what are you afraid of?”

“I’m not doing this with you. You lost the right to know what I’m thinking 17 years ago.”

“Oh, you keeping track?”

“Pretty easy to remember when the worst day of my life was.”

“I mean that much to ya, huh?”

Rio had a shit-eating grin on his face. Who did he think he was talking to her like this? Beth may want him in her life, but she certainly didn’t need him. She did fine without him and she always would. And when he was being this conceited arrogant asshole, Beth couldn’t even remember why she wanted him in the first place.

“Yeah, you did. But now, I couldn’t care less.”

With that, Beth turned on her heel and reentered her house. She just wished she had the power to stay away.

******************************************************************************

Beth thought she would be able to catch a break after getting Annie her receipt back from Brad or Brian or whatever the fuck his name was but the universe had other plans. Plans that involved Turner returning in front of her kids with a picture of her soulmate in his hands.

“You know this guy?”

Fuck.

“Uh. No”

“This is your house, right?”

“Yes.”

“But you’ve never seen this guy? Because see, from this angle here, it seems like maybe he’s coming right out your front door.”

Double fuck.

“No. No.”

That was all she could do. Deny, deny, deny.

“Oh, okay. I’ll swing by later and show it to your husband, too. When’s the big guy home from work?”

“Please don’t do that.”

Beth had worked tirelessly for all 15 years of her marriage to make sure Dean never found out about Rio, and now that they had something that, from a distance, could vaguely resemble a relationship, she would make sure Dean stayed in the dark. At least until the time was right to tell him.

“Why not?”

“I can’t talk about it right now. Not in front of my kids.”

“Then I think you should come by my office.”

“Okay. Tomorrow okay?”

“Today’s better.”

Of-fucking-course today was better. That meant she only had a few hours to figure out what the hell to tell the agent about Rio, to figure out some way to protect both of them.

Beth was pretty convinced the universe had a personal vendetta against her.

******************************************************************************

“So, what do I say?

“To who?”

“The FBI. What do I tell them?”

“They ain’t got nothing.”

“They’ve got a picture of you!”

“That ain’t special. I’m on Facebook, too.” He placed a large stack of bills on the center console of her car. “Your cut.” Without another word, Rio opened the car door and turned to exit her vehicle.

If Beth thought she could have done any sort of damage, she would have punched Rio in the face right then and there. Why wasn’t he taking any of this seriously? Why is making sure he stays out of prison a joke to him?

“Wait, wait, wait!”

Rio let out an audible sigh, having closed the door and turning to face Beth again.

“Listen. In my line of work, if you don’t have the FBI on your back, you ain’t making noise. You don’t get to be king without making a little noise.”

“I don’t wanna make noise. They’re gonna want to know what someone like me is doing with someone like you!”

“What are you doing with someone like me?”

What was she doing? Did Beth really think she could go this far and just have is be under the guise of trying to get some money? She knew what she was doing. She wanted to try to feel him out, see if there was any semblance of the boy she once knew inside of the king who sat in front of her. But she wasn’t going to tell him that.

“Well, obviously, I can’t tell them that.”

“Right. Right. Okay, so tell them I was hittin’ it.”

He wanted her to say what now? She couldn’t help but laugh as she spoke.

“What?”

“Oh, I’m sorry, sweetheart. Tell ‘em…tell ‘em we were making love.” 

“How…what…how do I even say that?”

“You’ll think of something. And it don’t gotta be a lie. I’d be more than willing to give you some inspiration.”

“What is that supposed to mean?”

Rio leaned over into Beth’s air space, his face just centimeters from hers, his pinkie reached up and traced her bangs, removing them from her line of vision.

“I know you feel it. It’s always been there. First noticed it all those years ago on the phone. There’s something here and I’m getting real tired of you pretendin’ there’s not.”

Beth wanted to give in. She wanted to know what it would be like to finally kiss her soulmate. She had been curious for years and she didn’t think she had it in her to fight anymore.

So, she didn’t. She stopped thinking. She gave in.

And without a moment’s reflection, she leaned forward and gently captured his lips with her own. It was quick, almost too quick. But after, as she looked into Rio’s hardened eyes, it felt as if they had the same realization.

At the same moment, they both leapt forward and brought the other as close as they could inside the minivan, no longer wanting to go without any type of contact. They had waited too long to be apart any longer. Rio grabbed onto Beth’s hips and pulled her into his seat, her legs now straddling his lap as Beth brought her hands up to cradle Rio’s face, bringing him even closer to her, all the while, never letting their newly ignited kiss break.

The only sound they could hear was the sound of their heavy breathing.

Beth, in the instant, could have sworn this is what heaven felt like. It wasn’t some white light that wraps you in warmth. It wasn’t the sound of his voice or the shocks that were sent through her body whenever they touch. It was here, in this bullet-hole riddled minivan, in Rio’s arms, breathing in his breath. Finally knowing how he tastes and how he feels.

But something wasn’t right, and she knew what that was. And that’s when she pulled away, her lips leaving Rio’s, his still chasing after hers as if he would never be able to get enough of her.

Beth pushed slightly on his shoulders, bringing him out of the moment, and he lazily trailed his eyes up to look into hers. It took more than a few seconds for her to voice what was on her mind Partly because she was breathless and light-headed and partly because she was longing to forget what she needed to say and just lose herself in the way that he kisses her.

“What the fuck are we doing?”

“Well, I thought we were doing what we both wanted to do. Isn’t this why you put your calling card where I could find it?”

Beth shook her head slightly and fought against her instincts to let what she was about to say go unspoken. But it needed to be talked about. If they had any chance in hell, she had to know.

“Aren’t you married? Isn’t that what you said all those years ago on the phone? I just got out of a toxic relationship. I’m not gonna let you do that to her.”

Rio chuckled softly with his head hanging down.

“You really think I’d go anywhere near you if I was still married? We called it quits years ago. 12 to be exact. Vanessa and I were not the greatest match.”

“You were a good enough match to marry her and leave me behind.”

“Mama, you know it wasn’t like that.”

“Wasn’t like what?”

“You weren’t real. We had never met. You weren’t real to me until that call, until I heard your voice.”

“But I was real. I was real and I was fucking heartbroken. You did that. You left and you chose to marry her. You chose to not meet me or call me earlier and, sure, that could be on me too, but you still chose her over your soulmate. You got divorced 12 years ago and chose not to come find me.”

“Trust me, you wouldn’t have wanted me to come find you.”

Beth scrambled out of Rio’s lap like he was on fire and returned to her own seat. In the course of a few seconds she went from being in a state of pure bliss to being too angry she could no longer see straight.

“But that wasn’t for you to decide! Didn’t you want to know me?! Didn’t you want to be with me?! I'm your soul-fuckin’-mate!”

“It’s hard to explain, mama. You of all people should know that. You got married too.”

“Yeah! And look where that got me! In a marriage with a cheating husband, having to resort to robbing grocery stores just to put food on the table so my kids don’t starve!” 

“Yeah, going through that led us to here! Where we are supposed to be. There’s a bond between us that no one could break. It was supposed to be this way all along.”

Beth struggled to keep the tears at bay, her voice was close to breaking with each new word as she spoke.

“If only you had realized that 17 years ago. Now get the fuck out of my car.” 

******************************************************************************

“I had an affair.”

Beth had learned she was a pretty good liar. She had been lying to herself for years when she said she was fine being married to a useless idiot, when she said that she was okay with Rio being with someone else. Lying to someone else was easier than lying to yourself. When you lie to someone else, you don’t have to convince yourself that what you said was true.

“You had an affair.”

“I’m not proud of it and it’s over now. But that’s why he was at the house. And that’s why I couldn’t say anything in front of my husband and my children.”

“Oh. Well…okay, then.”

“Okay.”

There was no way it was that simple. He couldn’t just take her word for it. She knew that. But she was still hopeful so she had gathered her belongings after only being in Agent Turner’s office for a few minutes and began to walk out when he stopped her.

“Just out of curiosity, where’d you meet him?” She stood there staring at him before he spoke again. “Just wondering where a nice lady like you meets an inner-city gang banger. PTA? Or is it a speed dating thing? What’s that website? It’s Just Lunch?”

“At a bar.”

“What was he wearing?”

“Jeans.”

“What about you?”

“Dress.”

“Where did you meet him?”

“At a restaurant.”

“You just said bar.”

“It was a bar-restaurant. They had food.”

“What was the name?”

“Lucky’s.”

“Bet they’d remember a pair like you. Who drove? You or him, who drove?”

Why does any of this matter? He knew it didn’t. Beth knew it too. But as she knew, Beth was a good liar and if wanted to continue with this inquisition then that was fine with her. She knew she would be able to come up with an answer for any question he threw at her.

“We both did.”

“What kind of car does he drive?”

“A black BMW?”

“It’d be registered. I’ll check it.”

“Maybe it was a Cadillac.”

“Maybe. Have a good night, Mrs. Boland.”

She could not let him win. She could see it in his eyes that he didn’t believe her. She’ll just have to make him believe her.

“It was a one-night stand. I had just found out my husband was cheating on me with a child, more or less. And I was lonely and angry. And normally, sleeping with a complete stranger would repulse me. But it didn’t that day. I dropped the kids off at school and I went straight to the bar.”

“Where was your husband?”

“Screwing his secretary and losing all of our money.”

Beth fought for so long to not think of Rio, of what he might be doing with someone else. Every time she thought of him kissing or being with someone else, she would get angry. So, no. She didn’t lie. Dean really had slept with Amber. He really had lost all their money and she was angry, but that wasn’t anything new. She was always angry. She was always lonely. That part was all true. But everything she said about Rio, all of that was just a fantasy meant to never leave her mind. Too late for that now.

“We drank a little. And I invited him back to my house. We drank a little more. And then I realized what I was doing was insane and I told him to go. And he kissed me. I kissed him back. He pulled my panties down and we screwed right on the kitchen table, on the breakfast dishes. The kids had pancakes. Blueberry, if you were wondering. It only happened once. And I never saw that man again, And I don’t plan to.”

“Thank you for coming in.”

She stopped herself from letting out an audible sigh of relief. She did it. They were one step closer to being free from all of this. She had slung her purse onto her shoulder and almost forgot to grab her jacket in her hurry to leave that room.

“Mrs. Boland?”

She stopped for a moment to turn around and meet Turner’s gaze.

“Just be careful who you bring into your home.”

“I’m tougher than I look.”

She raced out the door, through the parking lot, and into her car where she calmly pulled out her phone and brought it to her ear. She listened to the heavy breathing on the other end before she made her presence known.

“I hope you got all that cause I’m not repeating that.”

“You don’t gotta. I got every single word.”

“Good.”

Beth lowered her phone to hang up when she faintly heard him calling her name.

“Elizabeth.”

“What?”

“I knew you would make me sound good.”

She didn’t say a word. She just pressed the end call button and deposited her phone back into her handbag.

Sitting in the silence of her car, Beth couldn’t help but think.

Here’s the thing with being Rio’s soulmate.

She’s known him practically her whole life but she still can’t shake the feeling she knows nothing about him. Rio, as she knew, kept walls a mile high and there was little she knew of how to break them down. And as she contemplated her life with him in it, she only had one real question: How long? How long would he continue to play mind games with her? How long would he dominate her every thought? How long would he stay in her life this time? Would it be for good or would he leave tomorrow? And for Beth, the answer was simple.

How long? Just as long as Rio is king. 

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! I am so sorry this has taken forever. Its been around 5 months since I posted so I really hope this was worth the wait! I'm done with school and hopeful I'll have so much more time to write! The work title came from the song How Long? by Anais Mitchell and the series title is from a song called Art by Sean Grandillo. Both are amazing songs! 
> 
> Please leave kudos or comments if you like this part! I try to respond to every comment I get and it is always amazing to hear from you guys! 
> 
> Thanks again! <3


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